UPDATE 1-General Growth names Centro CEO to its board

(Recasts first sentence, adds new board member's background)

NEW YORK, July 10 (Reuters) - General Growth Properties Inc GGWPQ.PK, which filed for bankruptcy in April, named veteran shopping center turnaround chief Glenn Rufrano to its board, according to a regulatory filing.

Rufrano is chief executive of Australia's Centro Properties Group CNP.AX, which bought U.S. grocery-anchored shopping center owner New Plan Excel Realty Trust and its 467 properties in April 2007 for $3.7 billion.

At the time of the deal, Rufrano had been head of New Plan Excel and was credited with repositioning the company and readying it for sale.

But Centro became an early victim of the credit crisis and was unable to repay $3.4 billion of short-term debt in December 2007. A month later, Rufrano took over as head of Centro.

With the addition of Rufrano, General Growth's board has been expanded to 11 members, according to a filing made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday. His term expires in 2011.

Centro owns, manages and develops retail shopping centers in Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

General Growth and 166 of the more than 200 malls it owns or operates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on April 16. (Reporting by Nick Zieminski and Ilaina Jonas; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Matthew Lewis)